Authors: Dani Matthews
“If you'd left me there all night, you'd have a knife
to it right now.”
“I figured as much. You really need to find that key.”
“Right,” I mutter as I turn my attention back to the
carpet, then I wiggle under the bed again and search for the key. “Didn't you
see where I put it last night?”
“No. I was a bit distracted.”
“I'm not seeing it down here.” I pull myself back out
and look around the floor below night stand, then along the side of the bed
he's lying on.
“Did you drop it on the bed?”
I rise to my feet and look at him expectantly. “Roll
over.”
His blue eyes focus on mine, and he gives me a wide
smile. “Your wish is my command.” He swings his body over so that he's on his
side, his back to me. Instead of searching the sheets for the key, I find
myself admiring his tight, tanned ass. No tan lines. “You can get re-acquainted
with my body all you want after you unlock the cuffs and I use your bathroom.
Hurry up.”
The urgency in his tone has me taking pity on him. I
quickly search the sheets before I move around the bed to search the rest of
it. When I finish, he flips back to his prior position. I don't see the damn
key. With my hands planted on my hips, I stand before him, eyes narrowing. “You
did
see me take the key from the drawer, didn't you?”
He stiffens up on the bed, his eyes locking on mine.
“I wasn't with you when you grabbed the cuffs.”
My mouth falls open. “You dared a tanked woman to
steal handcuffs, and you didn't bother to go with to make sure she grabbed the
fucking key?!”
“Shit,” he says under his breath. “You weren't acting
drunk, remember?”
It sinks in. The key is still in Ace's kink drawer.
Knowing Ace like I do, he has a woman in his bed right now. “I'm going to have
to buy a new mattress.”
His eyebrows shoot up, and he gives me a warning look.
“Do not make me piss this bed. I haven't pissed a bed since I was four. Go get
the key.”
“There is no way in hell I am making Ace aware of the
fact that I stole those handcuffs. I will never live it down. I'd rather buy a
new mattress,” I say flatly as I
fold
my arms over my
chest stubbornly.
“Don't tell him. Just go over and sneak it out from
wherever you got the cuffs from. I know you're close with Ace and Jeremy. They
talk about you all the time.”
“They do?” I ask, taken aback by this news.
“Yes. Zoey, get the key. Please.” His pleading gaze
holds mine. If he pisses my bed, he'll never hear the end of it if it ever gets
out. That, and pissing a bed when you're in your early twenties would be
humiliating. Especially in front of a woman.
My teeth chew my lower lip as I try to figure out how
to go about stealing the key. “The key is in his bedroom. If you've been around
Ace enough, you know he's probably busy,” I mutter.
He grimaces. “Maybe he's done with whoever stayed
over.”
“Ace has got major stamina. He's not content with once
or twice. He can go all night when the mood hits,” I say as I rub my temple.
This situation is going from bad to worse.
“Do I have to beg you to get the fucking key? I'm damn
close here. Is that what it'll take? Is that what you need, Zoey?” he asks,
hostility beginning to make an appearance in his tone.
Damn it all to hell. I refuse to make a man like him
beg. To him that would probably be worse than pissing the bed. “Shut up and let
me think,” I grumble as I turn my back on him and run a hand over my face.
Since I don't seem to have a choice in the matter, I
bend down and swipe at the nearest pair of jeans on the floor. I slip them on
and quickly button the fly, leaving my feet bare. Without a word to the man on
my bed, I stride out of the bedroom. I walk down the short hall before entering
the small living room of my apartment. As I yank open my apartment door and
step into the hallway, I’m fully aware the next couple of minutes are going to
bring me certain humiliation.
With great reluctance, I walk to the apartment door
just several feet down the hall from my own. Ace and Jeremy live right next
door to me. When I'd moved in last year, the guys had quickly introduced
themselves, and within a month, they'd honored me with their 'open-door'
policy. I could come and go as I please. The only time they lock the door is
when both of them are out. The only privilege I've allotted them is my spare
key in case I ever lose mine. I've affectionately named them my non-friends. I
don't do friendship. I don't get close to anyone. But Ace and Jeremy are the
kind of guys that don't take no for an answer. They'd wiggled their way into my
life, and I kind of find myself stuck with them. I've made it clear they mean
nothing to me. That they're fun and all, but that's where it ends. They always
give me these knowing grins when I point it out to them. They think
it's
bullshit.
Hell, I know
it's
bullshit.
I care about them. Though, I'll never admit it.
I know this probably sounds harsh, but it’s how I survive in this world these
days. When you care about someone, it leaves you vulnerable to the pain and
agony their leaving can cause. Because face it, people leave on a daily basis.
Either in death or simply because they don’t care about you anymore. I can’t
handle that kind of rejection again. I’ve dealt with it too much in the past,
and it’s made me the irrational, cynical person I am today.
After a long pause outside their apartment door, I
reluctantly brace myself and open it. I'm figuring Jeremy will still be passed
out in his bedroom. Ace will probably be in his room with whoever he'd seduced
into playing his bedroom games with for the night.
I quietly shut the door behind me before glancing up.
I'm startled to see that Ace is in the living room, and a tall, pretty
brunette, is making her way towards the door I'm standing in front of. Her
brown hair is tousled, her lips swollen. The look in her eyes screams of sexual
satisfaction.
I step aside, and the brunette ignores me completely
as she saunters out the door in a whiff of sensual perfume mixed with Ace's
cologne. I fight the urge to shake my head as I turn and shut the door behind
her. I will never understand why a woman would willingly give up all control to
a man. As if a man needs more of an ego
boost.
“To what do I owe the pleasure of this early morning
visit? It's not even nine, and as I recall, you've threatened both mine and
Jeremy's manhood if we ever knock on your door before noon on the weekends,”
Ace muses.
I turn and look at him. He's bare chested, and a pair
of jeans ride low on his hips, the top button undone. I try to ignore all that
tanned skin and solid muscle. Ace is a total stud. I’d call him perfect if it
weren’t for the fact that he’d broken his nose during a fight last year, and
now it’s slightly crooked. That little imperfection doesn’t hinder his looks,
though. I meet his wicked dark gray eyes, and they gleam, letting me know that
he can tell I'm trying not to appraise his body. I give him a droll look. “Been
there, done that, remember?”
His mouth twitches. “Yeah. You're the worst lay I've
ever had, Z.”
“Back at you,” I retort while a smile tugs at my lips
over the running joke that we have yet to tire of.
“So, why are you up so early?” His eyes run over my
shirt, noting my braless breasts, then they slide down to my wrinkled jeans and
bare feet. “You look like you literally just rolled out of bed,” he comments as
he runs a hand through his slightly mussed jaw length blond hair.
“I left something in your bathroom. I just have to
grab it, and I'll be out of your way,” I say as I walk past him and make a
bee-line for the bathroom down the hall before he can comment. As soon as I
enter the bathroom, I shut the door in hopes that he'll go mess around in the
kitchen. When Ace isn't in class or having sex, he's likely working out or
feeding his face. Since he's not at the gym, I'm assuming he'll be wanting to
fill his stomach. After a second, I silently crack the door and listen
intently. I can hear cupboards opening in the kitchen.
I gaze up at the ceiling briefly, mouthing a silent
“thank you” before I sneak out of the bathroom and enter the hall. Jeremy's
door is closed, just like I'd anticipated. I rush through Ace's open bedroom
doorway and cross the room. The curtains are still pulled, and the room is in
shadows. It smells of sex, and I see that Ace has yet to remove the silken
restraints from his four poster bed. I shake my head and stride to the
nightstand on the other side of the bed. I have no idea why Ace demands so much
control in the bedroom. I'm sure there's a story there, but Ace isn't one to
talk about anything personal. He barely even talks about his parents or his
life before college. All I really know is that he comes from wealth, and that
he doesn’t have to worry about paying tuition or for this apartment. Otherwise,
he’d have a job like the rest of us, which he doesn’t. Ace is pretty tight
lipped about his past and the money that never seems to run out, though he
doesn’t flaunt it. I think the only thing he’s ever splurged on is the Hummer
he drives. Quite honestly, he's the perfect non-friend. We don't dredge up
stupid shit. We live in the here and now, having fun and enjoying life. Well, I
enjoy it as much as I can nowadays, but it's not the same as it used to be back
when...
My heart clenches in my chest, and I push the ache
aside, shutting down that last thought. I can't go there.
I won't.
I drop to my knees and wonder if the man cuffed to my
bed has pissed my mattress yet. He damn well better not have now that I risk
the chance of being caught, because he's insisting I get the stupid key. If Ace
catches me... I shudder.
As quietly as I can, I pull open the bottom nightstand
drawer and dig around the different types of restraints. There's a few other
toys, and I grimace as I try not to touch them. My fingers brush against the
bottom of the drawer anxiously. It's too dark to actually see anything. My
fingertip nudges something small and cool in the corner. The key! I grab it with
relief.
“What are you doing?”
A startled yelp escapes me. I instinctively slam the
drawer shut, my hand fisting around the tiny key as I jump to my feet. My heart
drops as I find Ace leaning against his door frame, looking lazy as his
shoulder rests against the frame, his arms crossed over his bare chest. I can't
see his expression, because the light in the hallway is brighter behind him,
and his bedroom is in shadows.
Fucking A.
When Ace realizes I'm not going to willingly answer,
he straightens slightly and reaches for the light switch on his wall. Light
floods the room, and his gray eyes pry at mine. I watch as his eyes shift from
the nightstand I am standing in front of before lifting back to my fisted hand.
Of course, I stupidly hide it behind my back, as if just looking at my fist is
enough for him to know what's in it. Nothing like giving the proverbial green
light that says, 'Hey,
looky
here, I'm hiding
something!'
His eyes widen slightly, then they gleam with
speculation. “What's in your hand, Z?”
“Nothing. Just got a little lost coming out of the
bathroom. You need to air out your room,” I say flippantly as I walk toward
him, hoping he'll just drop it.
Ace pulls himself to his full six-foot-three height
and crosses his arms again, taking up the entire doorway so that it's
impossible for me to walk past. “There's only four rooms in this apartment.
Kind of hard to get lost,” he says with a grin.
I look up at him and glare, because he's enjoying
this. “Drop it, Ace.”
Quick as lightening, he reaches out and grabs my
wrist. My fist clenches tightly around the key with the expectation that he's
going to pry it open. Instead, he keeps a firm hand on my wrist as he steps
into his room, pulling me with him while he walks towards his nightstand.
Damn, damn,
damn
. I'm going to kill the
stranger in my bed. At least I have him right where I want him, and he can't
escape me. Ace's hand is firm but gentle on my wrist, and I have no choice but
to stand there and watch as he bends down and opens his nightstand drawer. He
digs around until his whole body abruptly stills.
I bite my lip.
Ace straightens up and stares at me with a look of
dismay. “You took the pink cuffs? The pink
cuffs
you wouldn't let me
near you with?”
My lips press together tightly as my mind scrambles
for some sort of logical explanation.
His expression turns conflicted. “You were adamant
that you'd never allow... Was it just me you didn't trust?” he asks quietly.
Shit.
I sober up real fast, because the last thing I want is
to hurt Ace. I sigh with resignation and meet his gaze. “I was absolutely
hammered last night, and some dumbass dared me to steal the cuffs. Not for me
but...for me to use on him. I forgot the key,” I grumble in a rush.
Ace stares at me, then dawning realization flickers in
his gaze before he begins to laugh loudly. “You've got a man handcuffed to your
bed?”